Sock it to Me on a Slow Sunday...

Hello -- so did you have a good Christmas?  Ready for the New Year?  

We did a modified Christmas at my house instead of at my older son's place and it was nice. Elliott at 5 years old  has this Santa stuff all down pat  had a great  Christmas... lots of toys that he wanted were on Santa's list in the exact form he wanted... and it was so wonderful to see his joy!

As for the New Year... well like a lot of you I'll be "celebrating" in my living room dressed in something comfy...and with my fingers crossed that 2025 shows improvement each and every day....now it has been 2 weeks since  I fell and fractured my knee and I'm muddling along. The pain is not the issue, that is tolerable... it is the immobilizer that makes everything... and I do mean EVERYTHING more challenging. Yesterday I made arrangements for a temporary ramp to be put on the house. After much thought I ditched the least expensive idea that would have made  the porch off limits and actually went with the more expensive  configuration as it seems to be the safest... and at first conversation it wasn't going to involve taking off the storm door and losing the porch... but now that is still a possibility and  I do NOT want to give up the porch for even a brief time... it is my comfy cozy refuge and it feeds my soul. When I'm out of the immobilizer and in a knee brace I should be able to sit out there again and watch the birds and the squirrels and it will greatly improve my mental health... and you can't put a price on that!! Say a prayer and cross your fingers they can work out a ramp that doesn't involve taking off the storm door. 

And I also arranged to rent a lift chair that is a recliner and has heating function ... 2 weeks of pushing myself out of my recliner and pushing it back to a bit of an angle has worn me out. I'm doing everything I can to make this situation as palatable as possible... and it ain't easy...

Like I said last week I'm still wrapping my head around this situation... and there has been some improvement. I've watched a lot of YouTube videos... got hooked on a channel with a young couple, Matt and Julia... you can find their channel here... he's British, she's Russian and they are traveling all over the world. The latest videos have them living in Beijing and studying Chinese.  They have been to many places that are off the beaten path like Turkmenistan, Siberia, Turkey, Malaysia... they aren't slick or influencers, just 2 young people out exploring the world... and I've enjoyed seeing their travels. I will never venture to these locales but it is fun to explore them from the comfort of my recliner. 

A friend suggested a new cozy mystery series to me by the author Jana DeLeon  The Miss Fortune series... I've already finished volume 1, Louisiana Longshot and downloaded volume 2 Lethal Bayou Beauty.  There are 28 books in the series so that should keep me busy for a while... 

I'm considering  purchasing an Ancestry.com membership again ... I had one years ago and did some research on my Father's side of the family, but I never looked into my Mother's side... this is something I've thought about doing before but always felt like I didn't have time to do it... I definitely have time to do this at the moment...

Note - the pics are gonna be wonky for a while... I took all of these with the items either sitting on my lap or on my little tray table... not great angles... but better than nothing...right?

And I stitched a little... this Soapbox Winter by Bent Creek...

a mere 34 stitches wide by 312 stitches long...  

I'm using DMC and when I started this about a month ago I had thought about changing some of the flosses... but right now that's not in the cards... just gonna go with what I already pulled. I'll fill in the snowman last so that white stays as clean as possible.

If I want to do a Blessing Sampler in January I need to get my butt in gear and make up my mind. I need to have Nick go unearth the chart I want... I think it is next to the printer in the craft room but I can't get the wheelchair in that room unless we move the bookcase... the chart I'm thinking of only uses 3 flosses ... I think I'll use a combo of DMC and an overdyed...I'll have to use  whatever linen I can find that I've already dyed... a project for Monday... 

The activity I've engaged in the most in the last two weeks (other than being annoyed at myself for getting into this situation) has been sock knitting... Sock it to Me... and if you remember that phrase you are as old as me... Judy Carne... 1967... I was a freshman in high school...when dinosaurs roamed the earth...

So far I've got 3 new pairs of socks to show for my time... now to be clear I didn't knit all 6 socks... 2 pairs were part way done and the one pair was a new start...

This pair had one sock finished and the 2nd sock was past the heel and half way to the toe...

I think this one some kind of Opal hand dyed... it came in two pre-wound cakes... I love the pooling on the leg part but I don't know why it didn't continue on the foot when I got down to the same stitch count... or why the foot on one is more blue than the other...oh well ... they are very interesting.

This pair had one sock done and the second sock was down around the heel when I picked it back up. 

I used two different Opal yarns each in a turquoise color way, alternating each round... LOVE the color of these!

This pair is a a mish mash of different Opal yarns that kinda read purple... I only had about 2" of one sock done when I picked it up and then I did the second sock too...

I like the scrappy ones and I don't mind weaving in a bajillion ends... 

So with those 3 pairs complete I cast on a 4th pair... now again this pair is 2 different Opal yarns. One was from the Claude Monet series and the other I have no clue... I think it might be a leftover from a friend as there was only 31 grams ... which will work...

now I expected lots of stripey-ness all the way down... but it started out kinda blotchy and so far I've gotten thin stripes and some thicker stripes... so I'm definitely getting tons of variety.  I can't wait to get that solid purple heel done and get back to the patterned yarns. I like knitting these kinds of socks because you have no idea what is going to happen... nothing repetitive about this patterning... and when I start the second sock I will reverse the direction of one of the yarns so I should have no chance of anything matchy matchy... it definitely keeps my interest.

Soooo... I am occupying my time a little bit  better than last week... still have a looooong way to  go.  Having troubles sleeping and still waiting on getting a shower instead of a sponge bath... if the ramp gets installed soon, my son proposed going to a local hotel with handicap accessible bathrooms and booking a room for a night... his treat... and I'd like to take him up on that. It would be safer than trying to maneuver in my tiny bathroom with 71 year old tub... I also hope that a lift chair recliner would be more comfortable and perhaps I could get some sleep in it too. My current recliner is ok... meant to be a sitting chair, not a sleeping chair...

Obviously I don't have a lot of plans for the upcoming week...no babysitting Elliott, no meeting up with friends for lunch... but I have had lots of nice visits from friends and I truly appreciate that ... it does make the day go faster. I've gone from a life where I used to look at the clock and think where did the day go to? To sitting in the recliner and looking at the clock and thinking sheesh, only an hour has passed since I last checked ... time is definitely moving slooooooooow.....

My normal New Year's Day routine is to indulge in all the activities that I want to do every day for the rest of the year... knit a little, cross stitch a little, sew a little on my Juki and go out to eat... right now the first 2 are doable but the last 2 aren't...sigh.... 

I do have an ortho appointment on January 3rd... wish me luck that maybe I can ditch the immobilizer for a knee brace... that would be great... but realistically I doubt it is going to happen ...but a gal can dream, right?

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I have plenty  of time to check out all the posts there... 

Hope your upcoming week is a good one and that you have a safe NYE and a happy and healthy 2025!!

happy stitching-

carol fun